


Jason and the Toughened Hearts

by nonky



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29671803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Nick knew he wasn’t being entirely fair. Nancy’s willingness to be his lover and casual companion would have been a dream to most guys getting out of prison. He had been spoiled in his old life. His parents were warm and dedicated to family. He’d had good friends. His college plans would have put him on a path to professional football. Unfortunately, he’d seen his luck turn, so being lucky wasn’t enough.Spoilers up to 2x05, and warnings for discussion of the somewhat controversial past Nancy/Nick relationship.
Relationships: George Fan/Ned Nickerson, Nancy Drew/Ned Nickerson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10
Collections: Nancy Drew TV Series (2019)





	Jason and the Toughened Hearts

“What was it like dating Nancy?”

George had a book in her hands, avoiding any requests to help him assemble the coffee table he thought he might get built two days before the year long warranty ran out. She had volunteered to tip the sofa over and screw the legs on and her furniture duties were honourably discharged. She had sat down to test it out, leaving Nick to his aggravation.

He glanced over the giant sheet of instructions and pursed his lips. “No, that’s not a good topic right there. That’s a barrel of nuclear waste, and if we open it, it’ll be too radioactive in here to order a delicious pizza,” he said quickly. 

Sharp eyes fixed on him and the book was laid down. She sat up from her stretched out slouch.

“I had a lengthy adulterous affair with Nancy’s long lost biological father. Mine is nuclear, yours is a tiny can of fishing bait,” George told him crisply. 

Nick tried another dodge, shrugging sheepishly. “I also don’t like worms on my pizza?”

Her dark red lipstick was a little faded from their celebration of dragging his new living room pieces into his apartment. She looked at him with a patient seriousness he couldn’t deny. 

“Oh-kay, I will tell you very generally what it feels fair to say, but I’m not going to trash her. It was a failed attempt at a loaded time for both of us. I felt a little taken advantage of, but no one made promises. I was trying to make her my support system, and I fooled myself. We had a lot of warm, funny, close moments we both probably needed. But ultimately Nancy needs to feel in control of everything, and set the pace. I got pushy, she pushed back.”

Nick was aware he sounded apologetic. He didn’t feel guilty exactly, though he could see his errors. 

George slid off the new sofa and sat on the floor with him. “It’s okay to want things, or to need them from people. You were just out of prison. That’s not easy,” she said. 

“I lived two years with no control over anything in my daily life, dictated by an industrial grey routine that numbed the scary moments,” Nick said. “It was awful but I knew how to do that. And when I had the world again it was too much to take in. I needed to make choices. The last big choices I’d made involved somebody dying and facing up to my responsibility. I tiptoed around everything, couldn’t order lunch by myself without agonizing over spending money. The idea of applying for a lease made me panic. I felt so conspicuous.”

She put a hand on his leg and her tone was wistful. “Small towns are cruel. They need a target to hang their inferiority complex.”

He had wanted to feel average and blend in, leaving no trace of his presence. Getting a job was daunting. When it came with a lot of solitude and a place to live without neighbours, Nick was relieved. He had time to feel real.

“I can’t really explain it. No one was hard on me. I had so many plans for getting my freedom and then I was too afraid to do them. So when I met a nice girl who seemed to like me, I threw myself into it. I wasn’t going to let her be a nice girl, she had to be my girl, and people had to know about it. I wanted to make it more than it was,” he said. 

George had been around for all that, and the awkwardness of trying to claim Nancy’s affections with obligation. A lot of their dates had fireworks and bizarre local festivals to distract from the way she gravitated to isolated private spots. He had carried the majority of the effort for a while, only giving it up when her priorities became ghosts over people. It was woefully premature, like bringing an engagement ring to a second date. He hadn’t done the work and put in the time to be the most important person in her life. The potential for rejection was terrifying, and too much of a setback to risk.

Nick knew he wasn’t being entirely fair. Nancy’s willingness to be his lover and casual companion would have been a dream to most guys getting out of prison. He had been spoiled in his old life. His parents were warm and dedicated to family. He’d had good friends. His college plans would have put him on a path to professional football. Unfortunately, he’d seen his luck turn, so being lucky wasn’t enough. 

“There are worse problems to have than someone who wants to make a commitment,” George said. She picked at the thick outer seam of his jeans. 

“I’m not happy with some of the things I did. I followed her around and tried to keep her out of danger. I tried to wedge personal stuff in with stuff about her mom. I was greedy. I never would have pushed for her to have sex, but I pushed her for affection and I pushed to know her before she wanted to share herself.”

Throwing himself into the whirlwind of Nancy Drew’s world was an antidote to the shock of Tiffany’s death, and his inheritance. Nick had been ready to dive into the mad drives and leaps of deduction without checking to see his landing. It would have been like putting a diving board over a fish bowl. Being willing didn’t make the leap less shallow or destructive.

George was thoughtful, her body leaned in to comfort him. Nick realized he was crushing a bolt in his fist and opened his hand. He hadn’t forgotten their death omens, or their horrifying reality he’d lived in the few minutes George didn’t survive. 

“Nancy doesn’t seem mad at you,” she said. “I know the breakup was sad for her, even though she doesn’t really talk about feelings.”

“I’m not mad at her. It was disrespectful,” he said firmly. “It was hurtful and neither of us needed extra suffering. Calling it off was for the best.”

His girl was soft in bursts of honest vulnerability, every little aspect of her character a gem of a thing to collect and string on a necklace for her. “I’m not mad at it, either,” she told him. “Best thing to happen to me all year, to be honest.”

George was challenging, but she’d been receptive from the start. She was almost ruthlessly pragmatic, and her roots sank deep into Horseshoe Bay. She cared for her family. She’d welcomed his help with The Claw and guided an investment he could build into a career. There was no competition between the two young women, both of them dear to him. Reflection was natural, though. 

Nancy had mystery and intrigue, but George had a wonderful absence of drama. She had to measure her efforts to do justice to her many roles. There was no room for obsession when Ted never remembered her lunch bag and the restaurant’s produce vendor kept trying to give them cheap iceberg lettuce for the price of greenleaf. She had pushed and bumped her schedule to make evenings to spend with him. Every tiny preference just for him was special, even the scoldings when he made a menu change on the fly.

He had arrived in town needing a lot, and his desperation had clung to Nancy for a while. She was worthy of love and he wished it for her, but his brand of love needed quiet encouragement more than passionate flashes. George left him wanting but he didn’t despair each private moment would be the last. Doing without a relationship had taught Nick to expect a soundness from being loved that avoided asking a young woman to be his everything. He had needed friends and purpose to balance his second act.

He was excited when George touched him, but behind it was a lull of surety. She was steadfast like the sailors in her family tree. They had a foundation lively with potential, and thousands of plans going forward. When he looked at Nancy, Nick couldn’t help seeing her stuck in the hardest time of her life. She had struggled to allow other people to know her only to realize she hadn’t known herself. No one could do that with her and she deserved her freedom to grow into her promise before she could give it to someone else.

His sweet, tough girl had him enchanted, but clear-minded. She would be the first to mock him being sentimental. Nick smiled at her with a flirtatious twinkle. 

“You know there’s no contest? I like Nancy. I’m glad I met her,” he said. “I just wish I’d have met you first.”

George blinked and gave him a kiss that didn’t hide her brief eye roll. Somewhere in the ramblings he must have satisfied her question. “You’re still buying pizza. Put that table together, I’m hungry.”

She hopped up and settled on the sofa with her head pillowed on the arm. “This is a great sofa. I picked the perfect one.”

He watched her go back to her book, and wondered if there was ever a perfect person to love. Nick knew she made him so glad to be with her, and he felt a part of her future might grow entwined with his hopes for himself.


End file.
